The State Attorney’s office has dropped its criminal investigation of employees of a prominent commercial real estate firm whose offices were stormed by an armed SWAT team last year. Around the same time prosecutors abandoned their criminal case, on Nov. 1, at least three related civil lawsuits and countersuits in …
Read More »Here’s what Florida’s lawmakers didn’t do: notable failed bills in 2022
Gov. Ron DeSantis continued this week to sign into law some of the measures Florida’s Republican-led Legislature passed this session, but thousands of bills died in Tallahassee and never made it to the governor, including some on notable issues.
Read More »Florida considers keeping details of some child deaths secret
Florida’s Legislature is considering proposals to keep secret details about the deaths of children who die in domestic violence cases, in deference to the mother of two young boys murdered last summer by their father.
Read More »Prosecutors charge prominent real estate brokers with racketeering, stealing trade secrets
State prosecutors on Tuesday formally charged two prominent real estate brokers with felony criminal charges of racketeering, fraud and stealing trade secrets as part of a long-running investigation into a business dispute with their former employer. The men, Daniel James Drotos, 34, and Michael Steven Ryals, 65, were the same …
Read More »Company sues mother of murdered boys over husband’s $4 million life insurance payout; she says husband’s estate owes her $10 million
An insurance company is suing the mother of two boys killed by her estranged husband over a $4 million life insurance payout which claims she may not have been legally entitled to receive. Meanwhile, she is trying to collect $10 million from her husband’s estate.
Read More »UF in political firestorm over decision to block professors’ testimony in voting rights lawsuit
Trying to extinguish a political controversy that has enveloped the University of Florida, the school promised that it will review its conflict-of-interest policy after it blocked requests by three prominent professors to provide paid testimony in a voting rights lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis and other top state officials. On …
Read More »Real estate agents in school board land deal are accused of ‘working both sides,’ increasing cost to Alachua County taxpayers
Fresh Take Florida’s two-month investigation into the deal also revealed that it largely circumvented oversight from a committee specifically tasked with monitoring the use of funds stemming from a half-cent education sales tax, which county officials pitched to voters as a way to fund improvements at existing schools and pay for new properties and construction.
Read More »Future of Florida’s abortion bill remains unclear
Florida's Republican-controlled Legislature already has failed twice in the past two years to pass a so-called "heartbeat” bill.
Read More »New Autopsy Reports Reveal Father Shot Sons, Self Despite Authorities Believing He Did Not Own Gun
Newly disclosed autopsy reports on Tuesday revealed new details about the deaths of two young brothers in May at the hands of their father, who authorities initially believed did not own a gun.
Read More »Employees At Gainesville Real Estate Firm Raided By SWAT Team Could Face Felony Charges
Gainesville police detectives accused Colliers International employees Lauren Edwards, 24, Daniel Drotos, 34, and Rory Causseaux, 59, of stealing dozens of trade secrets and proprietary documents and $2 million worth of deals from Bosshardt Realty Services, their former employer.
Read More »